anthony weiner's dust up with the republican opponent gets him off on the wrong foot in front of the aarp crowd. >> here we go. >> i heard what you said. >> don't put your hands on me. >> now. how about now? >> he called him grandpa, if you didn't hear it. just how far are bill and hillary clinton running away from that mayoral race? >> we are 100 miles from that race and everyone understands that we're not going to be involved.

good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president obama pulled the plug on that moscow summit with vladimir putin next month. the latest move of international chess. nbc white house correspondent kristin welker joins us from the white house. kristin, this is only the latest irritant between the two over syria and other issues. this snowden affair certainly was what set them over the edge. >> reporter: it was. this was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back. i've been talking to senior administration officials and they're really stressing that idea this afternoon, that russia's decision to grant snowden temporary asylum is a part of a number of tensions that have existed between the united states and russia leading up to today. that is something that they emphasized in the statement that they put out, andrea. i'll read you part of the statement by jay carney. he says, quote, given our lack of progress on issues such as

missile defense and arms control and trade and commercial relations, global security issues, we have informed the russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda. so really pointing out a number of the issues that exist between the two countries, as you said, andrey a. syria is another one. also antigay laws that exist in russia that is problematic ahead of the 2014 olympics in sochi. we heard president obama talk about that during his interview with jay leno. i can tell you according to senior administration officials, they contacted their top members to make them aware of this. top russian officials are calling this a disappointment. we're getting reaction from the hill. a lot of lawmakers supportive of this including ed royce who's

head of the house foreign affairs committee. i can tell you house speaker john boehner's spokesperson, brendan buck put out this statement, andrea, which reads the president's signature foreign policy from the first term, a reset with russia, has just collapsed. it's important to note secretary of state john kerry and chuck hagel will be meeting with their russian counterparts on friday. they will hope to have some sort of agreement on afghanistan and iran. >> thanks so much, kristin. officials in yemen are claiming they've disrupted an al qaeda plot. u.s. officials don't discount that but they say it's not related to the ongoing threat. joining me now from cairo, nbc chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. richard, yemen is still the real source of worry. what more do we know about the al qaeda plot and what they

think might be targeted? >> reporter: i think it's an indication of how difficult the situation is in yemen right now when the government comes out and says, yes, we foiled a major al qaeda plot that was going to destroy some oil and gas refineries, take over two commercial ports in the country and then to have two u.s. officials say, yes, that's a big deal. that's not the plot we were talking about. we were concerned about something even bigger than that. the more we dig into this we have been learning that this level of plotting from al qaeda in yemen is actually fairly common. the militant group all try to target the infrastructure and the government which is fairly weak and isn't able to really exert much authority in the country. >> richard, we've seen a real increase in the tempo of drone strikes. we know there's a plus and minus

value to drone strikes. there is civilian damage and it angers people. we're talking in the last week or ten days, five drone strikes in yemen. >> at least five drone strikes. two in the last 48 hours and over the last ten days we've seen an uptick in the number of attacks in yemen. this is after a several-month lull. a campaign has clearly begun in that country but when you go to areas in yemen that have been impacted by drone strikes, oftentimes you can see that these drone strikes do create more enemies and they are of limited value. if there is a particular individual who is on his way to do something dangerous, then i think almost anyone in the counter terrorism community will argue that that person has to be taken off the battlefield is the phrase they like to use.

i've spoken to people who are in counter terrorism to drone anyone suspicious, to drone anyone that's a never ending cycle. i was speaking to someone recently, mowing the lawn is not an effective strategy for yemen, pakistan and syria. although we're not droning there, in syria. i wouldn't rule that out. >> richard engel, thank you very much. joining me is mark mosetti and robin wright. thank you both. mark, what is your information telling you about the level of the threat and where they think they can go with this? they clearly can't keep all of these diplomatic posts closed indefinitely. >> no. as richard said, the locus of it seems to be in yemen. the fact that there are -- there's still this wide swath of

embassies and consulates that are closed show that they don't have really any clear indication of the location of any possible attack. there's an interesting dynamic that they've foiled the plot, it's over. the u.s. were saying, no. the yemeni were angry about the embassy closures so there is some back and forth here not only about the threat itself and the public perception of the threat. there is nothing new or anymore specificity. >> i want to play for both of you about the first comments from the president about the threat came on jay leno with the interview last night with the president. here's what the president had to say after jay asked him about whether this was all related, the embassy closures, to benghazi's failures. >> what do you say to those

cynics who go this is an over reaction to benghazi? how do you respond to that? >> one thing i've tried to do as president is not over react but make sure that as much as possible the american people understand that there are genuine risks out there. >> well, first of all, robin, the whole nature of the president going on leno, sixth time on the show to talk about all of these questions, and jay asking good questions. how much do you think benghazi does factor in the very strong response to close down so many posts? >> the u.s. has to take a strong position so it doesn't look like it's just getting it right. the franchises have proliferated. they've been extremely active in mali, tunisia, syria. there's a sense that at no time since 2001, since 9/11 have you

seen al qaeda in the middle east. >> mark, you are the author of the way of the knife been droves. you know everything there is to know. the zblt the president expressed the concern use r about using too much. we seemed to be using them as the first resort when we have a threat. >> i wish i knew everything there was to know. the speech was a milestone and the president came out and talked about these things but really in the couple months since we haven't seen a great deal of change in any kind of strategy. it's still going on in pakistan. when secretary of state kerry last weekend dated publicly that it would end it soon, u.s. officials said, no, we're not. in yemen they're still taking

the lead down even despite this pledge to transition everything to the military. it's the essential element of the counter terrorism strategy. >> meanwhile, in iran, a country you know so well. everything is comparative. except for what he said which was disputed, he said something about israel being a wound on the day of the march against israel, he does seem to be moderating the language of the nuclear program. >> there is a whole other mood. this is the man who's going to talk with the international kmunlt any at this rather than at. in his first press conference president rowhani said he's interested in substantive,

serious talks without wasting time which in many ways is a dig at his predecessor. the mere fact that an opportunity. i suspect for the first time we're on the same dip pla ma particular message. there was the reformer in iran or harder line in the united states, vice versa. robin wright, thank you very much. mark, thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. meanwhile in kenya, an incredible fire. africa's largest airport has finally reopened after a fire it canceled the force of the flight.

you and hillary had lunch. who invited who to lunch. >> i invited her. >> okay. >> we had a great time. she had the post administration gloat. you know when people leave the white house, two weeks later they look great. she was a great secretary of state and -- [ applause ] yeah, very proud of the work she did. >> did you notice her measuring the drapes or anything like that. >> keep in mind, she's been there before. president obama chose the relative comfort of the "tonight show" to take his first questions not only on foreign policy but also on hillary clinton and her future. joining me on the daily fix, co-host of post tv in play,

msnbc contributor and writer. tell us what this says about the presidency and modern communications that the president doesn't talk about the threat, he doesn't talk about putin at the white house, to the press core, or in interviews, to his anchors. he goes to the "tonight show" for his first -- we know there is a likelihood he'll have a news conference before he leaves for vacation but, still. it's an interesting development. >> you know, andrea, there's a couple of things. it shows the president and his people understand that they can sort of pick who they want to sit down with with the assurance that it will get widespread coverage. the other thing though that i think is sort of more fascinating is you and i have talked about this, this idea of late night tv, that's just for nun. not necessarily. i think the president understood that jay leno would ask him serious questions. he was ready to talk about the

nsa, russia, trayvon martin, hillary clinton 2016. the barriers, the way that we think about what slots fit in the media and how politicians use those, i don't think the obama white house thinks in those. i frankly don't think a lot of people who consume what we do think in those terms. i think this is a reflection of that. >> not at all. jay asked very good questions, jonathan. this was another example because there was so much news out there that the president has not been heard on. >> i'm sorry, andrea. i thought you were talking to cliff. in picking up on what chris was talking about. the president fielding questions from a late night talk show host instead of the white house press core, the president is not only picking his interviewer but picking his awed yejs. he's trying to leap frog us in the media and washington media

and talking to the american people directly. in your intro the president will probably do a press conference before he goes on vacation, so i think what the president is doing is sort of an all approach. we'll talk to the press core in the white house, we'll go to the american people with jay leno before going on vacation and then we'll see what happens in the fall. >> and, by the way, if the new york mayoral race couldn't get any sillier or stranger, this was -- let's just show again that altercation last night. it was an aarp event at which weaner gets into a verbal dispute with the gop debate. take a look. >> here we go. i heard what you said. [ inaudible ]

>> grampa. >> that doesn't strike me as city fitting in the playbook, chris, of how to win friends and influence people among the senior citizens there. >> so here's the deal. before everything happened with anthony weiner from 2011 on, part of his appeal and part of the reason that democrats -- many democrats love him, he was the guy who would go and he did this on the house floor, go and give it to republicans in a sort of unvarnished way, that he was the tough talking guy, unapologetic so that part of his personality think is genuine. the problem is that, you know, the post anthony weiner, post 2011 anthony weiner have gone through a lot of things that make that schtick much, much, much less appealing. >> this is bill clinton talking about the new york mayoral race and just how far he and hillary clinton are trying to stay away from it.

they know everybody in the race of course. one of the other candidates was the campaign manager for hillary clinton for a while when she was back in the senate. take a listen. >> neither hillary nor i was ever involved in the political campaign. there are too many people running for mayor who have been my supporters, who supported her for centsenator, her for presid. we are 100 miles away from that. we are not going to be involved as long as personal friends who we feel obligations are involved. so the feelings i have are all personal and since they are i shouldn't talk about them. >> jonathan, he spent a couple of minutes talking about them but you couldn't get farther away than rwanda talking about them. >> the clintons would love to be 100 miles away from it. they have a lot of people they know and love in these contests.

what's happening with anthony weiner must be their worst nightmare. they can't get 100 miles away as long as their surrogate daughter, huma abe is married to this guy. there's some weird, strange thing happening to this guy, anthony weiner, and his campaign. so, you know, president clinton can say we're staying 100 miles away, he's even saying this thousands of miles away from new york, but as long as anthony weiner is in the race, they're right there in the race with him. >> and before i let you go, the president said to jay leno that he thinks that the lgbt issue with russia is not going to be a problem for the olympics. he was critical of it but he says putin wants the olympics to be a success. how do you think the u.s. should handle this with its gay athletes, all of the athletes. >> this is tough. i've personally struggled with what i feel about this because

we have athletes who have been training for that moment for years, for decades and to have this happen is probably incredibly heartbreaking for them. i just read something on the new civil rights movement.com where there are some people who might be considering pulling out a rainbow flag as a form of protest. even if they were to do that they could be disqualified from competing in the olympics. how the united states deals with this, how the international olympic committee deals with this is something i haven't quite figured out. how do people deal with this and maintain their dignity and maintain their honor and still be able to compete in what is the preeminent sports competition in the world? >> there are a lot of equities involved. i think to be continued. jonathan, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> chris, thank you. and meanwhile, former president george w bush has been

discharged today from a dallas hospital a day after having a heart procedure to ease a blocked artery. the spokesman says bush 43 is doing great. he's expected to resume his normal schedule tomorrow. dustin hoffman is in recovery. after his recent battle with cancer. the 75-year-old actor from the "the graduate" to "tootsie" is doing just fine confirming what his representatives said, the cancer was detected early, was cured surgically. this morning on "today" the gang sent him some love. his all-time favorite guest in 17 years is dustin hoffman. >> seriously, in 17 years he makes me smile. >> and makes the crew smile. >> that's right. >> he's the only guy that they actually clapped for as he's introduced. it happens every single time he's here.

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i want the people out to know, including the mother, they can have strength and hope and their child will come back. >> with incredible courage michelle knight watched this morning as that cleveland home where she and two other women were held as prisoners for more than a decade was reduced to a pile of rubble. the demolition of ariel castro's home came a week after he was sentenced to life in prison. city officials say the women will have a say in what becomes of the property from now on. john yang joins me from cleveland. that must have been such an incredible emotional moment there, john. >> reporter: not just for michelle knight who was here this morning, but i think neighbors really cheered with the first big chunk of that house was taken out by the excavator. they also cheered when the final

wall came down. in the cab of that excavator when they took the first bite out of the house was gina dejesus's aunt. she said it was such a good feeling to be in that big machine when it started tearing the house down. she told nbc news she had so much anger in her right now about this she wanted to just keep going and take down the whole house. after the house came down the neighboring church rang its bells. the pastor -- the pastor there at the emmanuel lutheran church told me that all he could think of was that for every sunday for all the three years that they were in the house, those bells rang through the walls. there was nothing that ariel castro could do to stop the bells ringing through those walls for the ten years, giving

them hope, he hoped, giving them faith that their ordeal would end as it did earlier this year, andrea. >> wow. i can only imagine what it felt like for everyone who was there on the scene and all the rest. thank you so much. thanks, john. and a hearty get well soon from all of us here in the family to brian williams after his successful knee replacement surgery yesterday. jimmy fallon had a special message for his pal hoping the nightly news anchor is up busting a move very soon. here's a jam for all the fellows trying to do what those ladies tell us. get shot down as you're over zealous, play hard to get females, jealous. marty, go to a party. girls scant tilly clad. we wish you extra. ♪ [ male announcer ] you wait all year for summer. ♪

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welcome back. there's a significant development in u.s./russian developments. joining me is william cohn. what's the big deal saying yes to vladimir putin. he'll still be in russia, the president will, for the g-20. no reason to cancel that. he's not going to give putin the publici publicity, if you will, the platform of having the president of the united states at a bilateral summit in moscow. >> no, it's unfortunate because we have so many issues we have to discuss with russia but i think president putin did not want to be in the position of handing snowden over and it would benefit him. at the same token, president obama couldn't go there hat in

hand and couldn't go over in those circumstances. we still have secretary hagel and kerry meeting with their counterparts. that's a good thing. that will prepare the agenda for the g-20 meeting in st. petersberg in russia. i'm quite sure that president putin and president obama will be meeting at that time and hopefully move forward on a number of issues, including syria, iran, and syria again. >> syria is such a mess and iran is real important. there are opportunities there. the president longed to sort of get putin right now. is the relationship and all the other issues, are they more important than the snowden? >> i think domestic political concerns, both in russia and the united states made it impossible for them to get together under these circumstances. i do think we'll get back on track because it has to. the russians are being very

helpful to flights over their territory. they've been helpful with north korea, also the sanctions on iran. they could be more helpful. these are the issues we have to address. the relationship has to get back on track. we have to reset the reset. russia continues to supply weapons into syria. so president obama really has said assad has to go. not going unless the change the circumstances on the ground. iran discussing where they're going with their nuclear tarms weapons program. these are things that the russians have accumulated. it's important that president putin and president obama get together as soon as possible. >> the speaker's office put out a statement today saying that this proves that the so-called reset with russia has failed. >> it hasn't failed. it's a tough relationship, but i

think the situation in russia is that they are sort of the rodney danger field of europe, that they can't get no respect and i think president putin says, no, we need to be respected. we may not be a super power but we're a power. the energy field is there. they intend to get respect. we've made some progress. it's a very tough relationship. it's likely to be for some years to come but it's likely that we have a modus operandi. we have to find a way to live together and make sure things don't get out of control. >> we have the terrible anniversary today of the attack on our embassies in tanzania and kenya. what about embassy security? is this an over reaction, shutting down so many diplomatic posts because of a threat? do you think there's something else the administration could

have done? >> i don't think it's an over reaction. the administration is still very sense sieve and they don't want to see a replication of that. slowly you'll see each of the embassies will start to come back up. they'll have to calibrate it. this gets back into the nsa program. i know that many americans are still concerned about the level of intelligence collected through the nsa program but it's not only foreign intelligence. what the intelligence shows us is taking place in yemen or over in north africa. those calls are going through to parts of europe and to the united states so, yes, we may have to scale back the size. our enemies are out there making plots to ichb flikt harm on us. we need a very strong surveillance program, one in which congress has to take much greater responsibility in overseeing. that's critical to balance the liberty and also the security of

this country. >> thank you very much. bill cohn. and the web world is making headlines today. amazon's ceo made news by buying the washington post this week as a personal investment. they're diving into the art world. you wouldn't believe this, but they are introducing their new fine art marketplace. master pieces by andy warhol and monet are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. yahoo! continues to shake up the site. this time it is a makeover for the company's logo. the first time in 20 years. over the next 30 days yahoo! will showcase a different look every day and debut the final look at the end of the month. just in time for the upcoming nfl season, directv has a new app with a little help from the manning brothers making their hip-hop debut. ♪ so now's your chance ♪ to have football on your bone and football in your pants ♪

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i always said one day i'd go to china, just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day. download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours. in boston the judge in the whitey bulger trial has told the jury there is no statute of limitations on murder and racketeering. the jury in the first full day of deliberations had asked that question. the 83-year-old mob boss could face life in prison if convicted. ron mott joins me outside the court in boston. it seems like from an outsider's perspective, a jury questioning whether the statute of limitations applies to murder

and racketeering, that's the basis of the whole case. >> yeah, i don't know why they brought those questions back. i looked at that and thought, huh, they would not be in the jury instructions if they didn't apply to the case. the judge said you should not be concerned about that. 32 criminal charges. in fact, on count 2 there are 33 acts they must consider. here is the jury verdict form. it's seven pages long. this probably is going to be a long deliberation if they're going through each and every decision they have to make. whitey bulger, 83-year-old on trial. he could face life in prison which in effect would be a death sentence to whitey bulger if he is, in fact, convicted of that. last friday he made the decision in court that he would not testify. he called the entire proceedings a sham. told the judge just do with me what you will because he doesn't feel like he's gotten a fair trial, andrea. >> we should point out that this is really like a movie. the trial has already gone

hollywood. it was the inspiration for the hollywood movie "the departed." >> yeah, exactly. when you have witnesses who take the stand with nicknames like the rifleman and the executioner you know you have a colorful trial here. there have been some profane exchange between whitey bulger and witnesses on the stand. this trial has had everything. whitey bulger feeling this has not gone his way. he doesn't feel the court has been fair to him. day 37. we're moving into two months of this trial. the j you are is not sequestered so they go home. they have been checking in with the court about 4:15 to let them know how they're doing and typically they've been allowed to go home at 4:30. we'll see how this day unfolds. we believe they work through lunch and deliberate through lunch. while they're eating they can skusz the case. if one of them is missing or several of them are missing you

can't continue to deliberate. this trial has had it all, andrea. >> indeed. including a witness that was clearly murdered. his body dumped, that's the cast of characters that you've got there. ron mott covering it all in boston. thank you. before heading home to washington today, president obama will make a stop at camp pendleton to talk to the marines. this at a critical time during a military winddown from afghanistan and a military faci facing discussions. colonel jack, thanks for joining us today. there's a new study out today on the large number of high rate of suicides in the military and it suggests that the constant repleted deployments in the last decade have not contributed to the increased number of military suicides. have you had a chance to look at that and whether you agree with that analysis? >> yeah, i have taken a look at it. the trouble with statistics is

that sometimes it drives people to make conclusions based on could incidents and because there is some coincidental information doesn't necessarily mean it's the cause of anything. i don't believe in a single factor analysis in any case. i think that long deployments, repeated deployments, a long war that's just a few of the independent variables that cause the problem that we see in returning veterans, particularly in the morale and the suicide rate. there are lots of other reasons for it, too, and it's all part of the same thing. we've spent a lot of time and sustained a lot of casualties with troops going down unsecure roads. getting arms and legs blown off, blinded, traumatic brain injuries and so on. we're not going to see the results of that for many years so that's one of the causes.

there's also a big gap that's opened up, a very small number of people and the people being served and the people in the service feel like they're separated from the rest of the society that's serving. this has an effect. one of the other things that has an effect on the suicide rate and while the suicide rate i think wrong in the united states has actually been growing, i think it's been growing much faster among veterans in the military services and for those who have left the service it's particularly difficult because the lousy state of the economy means the unemployment rate is higher among the returning veterans. this has a negative effect, too. >> i mean, i think you're so right to talk about the multiple effec effects less

effects. lester holt did a story after a deployment in afghanistan, three in iraq, finally getting home and being reunited for a longer period. they would come home to know that they had to back up and go back out. this is the first time in a decade or more that they know that they are home pretty much for good. that has to make a big difference. >> yeah, any time you change circumstances, particularly highly emotionally charged circumstances you'll have some kind of effect on people's psyches. i want to point out and reiterate the fact that we've got a very small military establishment serving a very large number of people. i grew up in new york city in the second world war. all of my friends' parents had served. i had friends whose fathers were missing arms and legs. i had friends with no fathers at all. every household had somebody

serving during the war. that was part of the environment there. it's not like that at all so it's not surprising that people, veterans returning from this war feel other worlds they don't belong. most people don't know anybody in uniform. it's not surprising we have problems among veterans. >> in fact, because of a volunteer army, this war of all wars has really shown that the whole country is not engaged in it. it's a very, very small percentage. colonel jack, thank you very much. >> you're very welcome. >> thanks for being with us today. we are monitoring breaking news out of ireland where a u.s. airways flight will make a landing at a philadelphia airport. the plane flying from limerick, ireland, will taxi and be searched and met by law enforcement. it's flight 777. we will stay on top of this and bring you more details as we get them.

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so which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? let's talk about the bad blood between the braves and the nats. they're back at it tonight. the nats lost last night, but let's look at what happened when bryce harper -- first he hit a home run. then his next at-bat, what took place. apparently there was a bench-clearing -- he was hit -- >> i watched it. it was rough. >> tell me what happened because i was at work. i didn't watch it. >> it was your classic baseball brawl. it's like all the brawls i was in as a kid where everyone sort of mills around one another but there's not all that much done. you know, it would be better from a washington perspective, it would be a better rivalry and bad blood if we could actually beat the braves. so we continue to lose games and lose ground to the braves in the national league east, which is

not comforting to me. i like bryce harper's spunk. my wife loves -- my wife is very pro-bryce harper and his twitter feed, but we got to win games. >> well, it was -- when i heard about it and looked at the video this morning which is clearly something that we're not allowed to use, i guess. it's their video. but man, they were at each other. let's talk about camp pendleton. the president is going to stop, meet with the marines, talk about the defense sequester. that's a big issue that's not gotten enough attention at all in washington. the defense budget really is being hammered. >> you know, the sequester, i think the conventional wisdom on the sequester is it was much worse in theory than in practice. what that's not true for, people whom it actually affects. as you point out, for defense, the sequester was extremely painful in terms of its cuts. it's interesting because i think you're right. we don't necessarily hear those

stories that the obama administration seem to project when the sequester went into place. we were going to hear how badly this was hurting things we desperately needed. we really haven't heard that many of those stories. maybe we'll start to hear more of them, but it's a fascinatingly under told story for the administration that insisted that when the sequester went into place, we would be hearing these stories. long lines in airports, defense cuts, et cetera, et cetera. >> i think partly because a lot of these can't be stopped. they keep going, but the other thing is a lot of these job losses from the sequester are actually affecting the slow rate of recovery and the slow rate of bringing down the unemployment rate. in any case, thank you very much, chris. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, we have former nsa director michael haydn and former cia director and outgoing chief of protocol. remember, follow the show online

and on twitter. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> hi, andrea. coming up, major drama in the trial of accused ft. hood shooter major nadal hasan. the attorney assisting him is threatening to quit. we'll have a live report. plus, a nationwide man hunt underway for a man suspected of abducting his friend's daughter after first killing the child's mother and possibly her brother. the dad's emotional plea and where officials believe this man may be headed. and russia responds to president obama's decision to cancel a planned meeting with vladimir putin over the snowden decision. it is all coming up next on "news nation." i'm tony siragusa and i'm training guys who leak a little, to guard their manhood with new depend shields and guards. the discreet protection that's just for guys. now, it's your turn. get my training tips at guardyourmanhood.com

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developing news. russia reacting to president obama's tough message, no snowden, no meeting. in the past few hour, they called the president's decision not to meet with vladimir putin, quote, disappointing. the president made his decision official this morning in response to russia granting asylum to nsa leaker edward snowden. here's what the president said on "tonight show" with jay leno. >> i was disappointed because, you know, even though we don't have an extradition treaty with them, traditionally we have tried to respect if there's a lawmaker or an alleged lawbreaker in their country. they still help us on supplying our troops in afghanistan. they're still helping us on counterterrorism work. they were helpful after the boston bombing. but there have been times where they slipped back into cold war thinking and a cold war mentality. >> joining me now, nbc news